Child Poverty Bill

I thank the Minister for that response. I note that Clause 6(1)(e) states that regulations may be made about, ""how net household income is to be equivalised"." In practice, it leaves it free for the Government of the day, whoever they may be, to optimise the equivalence scale in the way they want. At one level, my amendment was probing in order to raise the importance of this issue. Interestingly, Professor Bradshaw in his conclusion said that the unmodified OECD scale is a rather better fit to minimum income standards than the modified one. As I read his conclusion, it was a fairly arbitrary change. The core point I wished to make was that choosing an equivalent scale for the convenience of making comparisons does not mean that we have to be tied to that scale when we are setting statutory targets that really matter for child poverty. I think that the Bill as it stands would allow that to happen but, before I withdraw the amendment, I ask the Minister to confirm that my understanding is correct.